The Great Food Debate
Here at Nordsternstaat we feed a variety of kibbles as well as raw food. We choose to mainly feed Kinetic and Victor at this point. We do also feed Titan Raw food and some other raw meaty bones that we get from local butchers and hunters. I do personally to feed “grain inclusive” foods that have a low pea and legume content. With the research that is still being done about Diet-Related Dilated Cardiomyopathy at this point we are choosing to avoid foods that have higher levels of these ingredients. We have fed grain free foods in the past and did really enjoy the results of our dogs on Fromm!
We choose to feed Kinetic dog food due to Aston being a hard keeper, I have found that their Ultra 32K helps her maintain her weight the best and helps her grain and maintain her muscle mass. I have probably went through 15 plus kibble brands as well as a variety premade raw grinds. While she did do well on Titan Red she was still eating close to three pounds a day as a 65 pound dog! What else I do like about Kinetic is the variety of energy levels that we can bounce around easily between this is great when you have dogs that work hard in one season but dogs are a little more lowkey at other times of the year. That way you are able to maintain a similar food volume through out the same year. I also do really enjoy Kinetics Supplements. You will see all three of them in our cabinet. The Hydro we refer to as “Doggie Gatorade”, it’s a great recovery supplement for after any sort of event were doing! It’s also great for when you have dogs that are a little resistant to drinking while working (for these dogs we actually add low sodium chicken or beef broth to their water as well to entice them to drink). I have noticed my dogs recovery time after exercise has been cut in about half with this product. The Bios is great for dogs that have tummy problems. This product I will forever swear is what got Styx over getting extremely ill from eating any small amount of foods that were “safe”. Now she can enjoy beef cheeks, raw meaty bones, and even some people food with out having a week of upset tummies! I also credit this product for being one of the products that have helped pave the way for Aston to maintain a healthy weight! The final product is Mass, this is great for dogs that you find struggle to maintain a healthy body condition. Adding this in over the past few months she has gained about 7 pounds of healthy lean muscle mass! I did also give this to Styx post spay when she had a really rough recovery and dropped a few pounds.
The next food you will see in our pantry is Victor's Edge Energy! Styx, Omen and Isa have THRIVED on this food! What I like about this food is the high calorie content per cup and the mixture of protein sources in the kibble with the beef, fish and duck. This time last year Styx could only eat lamb based foods but in August of 2021 I spent 45 minutes chatting with the lovely people at game fair and they gave me a couple free bags of food and said to just try! I took the plunge and here we are today. My one gripe about this food is the higher content of Garbanzo Beans. I am considering trying to switch everyone to their Max-5 Pro which is super similar! But has 2% higher protien but 2% less Fat and 13 less calories per cup. BUT the ingredient list is just about identical minus the Garbanzo Beans. I will have to pick up a bag and try it out and if works we will most likely switch every over to it. Bjorn just kinda eats what ever, he can eat either the Victor or Kinetic brand with no problem, but he is a very easy keeper.
The next thing you will see in our freezer is Titan. We use both the Titan Blue and Titan Red, all of our puppies that come home from Bauernhof come home on this food! Maris has done a ton of research when it comes to raw. Aston, Omen and Isa all did wonderful on Titan! I just travel too often for this to be their “normal diet” so a few days through out the week we will give them some titan instead of kibble just to change it up. I do prefer to give Aston the red as I find the higher level of beef just helps her maintain her weight a bit better. The other girls do great on either red or blue. Unfortunately Bjorn and Styx don’t do the best on titan. But another treat I will give my dogs is Pure Pheasant Prey Model Raw! All the dogs LOVE these products they have frozen and freeze dried parts and pieces as well! We also will feed pieces of venison, elk, duck, and goose from ourselves, friends and family from their hunting trips. We like to be able to use as much of the animals as we possible can! So you will regularly see heads, feet, neck, organs, ears, tongue, bones in our freezer! We feel amazing about having as little waste as possible from the animals we hunt.
Now the fun part… Supplements! Our cabinets are full of supplements some we like some we could do with out. Another probiotic we do really enjoy using is Fido-Vite SportzDog! After we run out of every tub of a probiotic we will just switch between This and the Kinetic one (mentioned above). My dogs do seem to find the Fido-Vite to be more appetizing. I will also say another benefit to this the added joint support with Glucosamine and Chondroitin. Firm-A-Stool is another thing I will SWEAR by. This is one of my Holy Grail, will recommended any chance I get product. If your dog gets stress poops or has diarrhea or just gets an upset tummy… you NEED this! When we were watching a R-MWD he had the most sensitive tummy ever (literally would have the poops for 2-3 days if he ate a small amount of the wrong food or if he ate some people food that was dropped on the ground. This would firm him right up! It also helped with a friends dog that stayed with us that got stress poops. I would just add a small amount of this to her bowl (with the owner permission of course). Canine Health Forward does also have a Probiotic and Revive supplements as well as a variety of kibbles. I have not personally used them other then samples I received as used as training treats so I can not testify to their abilities! If you have please let me know! I also use Tumeric powder, Salmon Oil and Apple Cider Vinegar tablets. I just use an organic brand from target and mix it in with their kibble and water blend. I do break the ACV tabs open and mix the powder in, I have noticed my dogs do find it to be less aversive then the just mixing in liquid. Salmon Oil does upset Styx’s stomach when it is in liquid form so I tried liquid capsules and havent had any problems thus far. Another Joint Supplement we do enjoy using is Super Snoots Joint Powder all of the dogs go crazy for this product! It is just 100% Green Lipped Muscles, this natural product has been shown to actually reduce joint inflammation and any pain. So I make sure to use this during the heavy work week or if one of the dogs is recovering from a joint injury/pain. I also noticed this did great things for Ayla before she passed she was 13 but still moved like a 5 year old and worked hard every season! The final Supplement you will regularly see is Bixbi Skin and Coat, this is only used on Aston during her allergy season. She does have environmental allergies that we battled for a couple years (stay tuned for a future post about that journey!) Bixbi is rich in polysaccharides and have been shown to promote healthy immune responses to external stress! Aston has been dramatically less itchy since adding this to her diet in early 2021, and has needed to cut back quite a bit on her cytopoint shots.
Some honorable mention foods that I really do like are
Farmina - This food is high in protien but is very rich, my dogs did do okay on it but it is one of the more expensive foods out there. Their ancient grain line is a great option if you are looking for a high quality food!
Inukshuk - This is a great food for working dogs! For my own dogs I did find it gave them a but duller coat and larger stool then what I would like but I know MANY working dog handlers across a variety of sports that are super happy with this food!
Red Paw - This is another food that I have tried, my dogs did enjoy it but it was a bit hard for me to access and pretty much could only find online. My dogs had nice shiny coats, nice stool and great energy on this food!
Natures Logic - this is by far one of my FAVORITE foods! I love the clean ingredients, my dogs looked spectacular on it, but it is very expensive. If I had a smaller number of dogs I would be feeding this but it is just a little out of the budget. I will buy this food from time to time and mix it in with their other kind just to be able to change things up!
In conclusion this is what works best for my personal dogs here, I am not a Veterinarian nor am I Veterinary Nutritionist but I have chatted quite a bit with both of these groups of people and came to the conclusion that I am doing best for my personal dogs! So please take everything I say with a grain of salt and do some research and figure out what works best for you and your dogs!
